A medical office setting relies on unobtrusive methods to communicate information regarding office personnel needs and whereabouts, front desk needs and patient flow information. For example, the front desk or other office personnel may need to determine whether a particular doctor is in a particular exam room. Frequently, there are multiple examination rooms as well as multiple doctors, which can pose a challenge to continually monitor and track the whereabouts of various office personnel.
By way of example, a technician may need to notify a particular doctor that his or her patient has been placed in a certain exam room and is ready to be seen. Frequently, a doctor in a room with a patient needs to alert a medical technician outside of the room that assistance is needed in the room.
One commonly used, low-tech approach to solving the aforementioned problems includes a system of colored flags that are rotated into view and visible down a hallway of the office. Different colored flags can be manually rotated into view to signal various needs.
Intercom systems are also available to communicate between various locations in the office setting, but such systems often require hard wiring. In addition, intercom systems must be used with caution when patients are present due to privacy issues and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, commonly referred to as HIPAA.
Traditionally pagers have been used in medical settings, but pagers are more appropriate in a hospital based setting to call a doctor for a particular need or emergency and are impractical in smaller office environment such as a medical clinic or dental office.